


where the stars have awakened

by beifomg



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Also a bit of swearing, Canon Compliant, Crying, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Love, M/M, Nightmares, Soobin is loved and Beomgyu loves him, Soobin loves Beomgyu too, There are tears but more importantly there is relief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:15:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24994489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beifomg/pseuds/beifomg
Summary: “I’ll be here, hyung.” Has Choi Beomgyu always been this good at reading minds?In which Soobin has a terrible nightmare, and Beomgyu is there to shake him out of it. And as this happens, friendship blooms into love.
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu & Choi Soobin, Choi Beomgyu/Choi Soobin
Comments: 13
Kudos: 100





	where the stars have awakened

Soobin wakes up.

He blinks his eyes open, eyesight adjusting to his and Beomgyu’s bedroom light that has been left on. Sitting up groaning, he grapples around under his blanket in search of his phone. He retrieves it from somewhere near his calves and checks to see the time. 

**_1:38 AM_ **

Too early, Soobin decides. He’s about to plop down onto his pillow when all of a sudden his stomach grumbles audibly. His hand darts to his belly, and well... Yes, okay, for some reason he’s fully hungry, despite eating a full meal for dinner last night.

Choosing to grab a small snack from their pantry in the kitchen, he stretches with a yawn and descends from his bed on the top bunk. Just as he’s climbing the short way down, a chuckle startles him. 

“Oh, shit,” Soobin _almost_ (but not quite) shouts. His eyes zoom in on Beomgyu’s sleeping back from this point of view. Soobin reckons his friend is having a really great dream for him to laugh in it. A tiny smile blossoming on his lips, Soobin thinks about how Beomgyu looks adorable in his fetal position. 

Soobin leaves the light on on his way out of their shared room and goes out to the kitchen.

He finds himself rifling through the dozen cups of ramen, roasted seaweed snacks, and a couple of the junk food they won in that one variety show guesting the five of them did. He’s in the middle of picking between the seaweed and making a beeline towards the fridge for his leftover ice cream instead when an audible cough reaches his ears from not so far away.

“Shit!” Soobin swears in surprise for the second time tonight.

The packet of seaweed falls from his hands to the floor as he practically jumps to the ceiling. He turns to face whoever coughed so damn loudly as to startle him when he spots Kai standing in the doorway of his and Taehyun’s room.

Soobin leans back onto the kitchen counter, both his hands coming up to his chest, above his heart. “Wah…. Huening-ah! Don’t scare me like that!” 

Kai just laughs that precious, funny laugh of his. Soobin bows his head and nods, smiling in spite of himself. He sighs. “Are you hungry, too? Let’s have a midnight snack an--”

And then, something peculiar happens.

Just as Soobin looks back up again, supposedly at the maknae, he finds no one there. The door of Kai and Taehyun’s room has been shut close. Eyebrows knitting together as a chill runs down his spine, Soobin bends down to pick the fallen snack when the door to Yeonjun’s room slams wide open.

It’s an understatement to say Soobin is spooked to the point no sound is coming out of him.

But then, too late he realizes he just shouted. But no sound came out of him.

The light in Yeonjun’s room is off, so it’s pitch dark and he can’t see anything. He’s about to muster some courage and march towards Yeonjun’s room when the door to the two maknaes’ room creaks open ever so slowly. The dark stares at him like the oblivion he has always been afraid of. 

Gulping down his fear, Soobin stammers out, “Taehyun-ah? Yeonjun-hyung?”

Nobody. Nothing. Again. “Anyone?”

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a shrill scream.

Panic pumps through Soobin’s every vein, and as he dashes straight past the doorway of his and Beomgyu’s room, he ends up falling into darkness.

“ _Save me!_ ” Soobin screams as he falls. It feels like he spends eternity plummeting down to an abyss when his fall is abruptly cut short and his body slams onto the ground.

The feeling of his heart pounding forces him into consciousness.

“Save me!” Soobin’s voice leaves his mouth once again, those words forming on the tip of his tongue just as someone shakes his forearm. 

“ _Soobin-hyung!_ Hyung!” someone calls. Soobin sits up straight, chest heaving and breaths shallow. He lays his head into his seemingly frail hands, scared and in a few moments coming to realize by himself that it was all a dream.

The room is pitch dark and half of his body is still under his blanket when a hand squeezes his arm. “Soobin-hyung,” Beomgyu gently prods. 

Soobin moves to face Beomgyu who is standing on the ladder, his face levelled at Soobin’s chest. Beomgyu looks up at him. Soobin imagines he can see the soft, warm gleam in his younger friend’s eyes even in the darkness.

“Soobin-hyung,” Beomgyu murmurs, voice in itself already a comforting hug, “You were having a nightmare.”

Soobin gulps down a hiccup as he begins to feel something wet touch the area below his collarbones. 

"Beomgyu… Is everyone safe?"

A look of confusion flashes across Beomgyu's face, but it leaves as soon as Beomgyu understands. Beomgyu always understands.

Beomgyu nods yes reassuringly, hand leaving Soobin’s arm to softly tug on his hyung’s hand. "Hyung… you're crying."

Shocked at his own reaction, and caught off-guard at the realization of how his shirt is wet by the collar, more tears fall and start to trek down Soobin's already damp cheeks.

Once upon a time, Soobin rarely had nightmares. But when he does have them, they tend to make a wreck out of his emotional state the moment he awakes. This is one of those times. And Soobin… well, Soobin isn’t one hundred percent sure why he’s having these bad dreams. Neither do the members. But that’s because he doesn’t tell them lest he burdens them with his own problems, which is far from what he desires. The thing is, only Beomgyu, his roommate, knows he has these nightmares from time to time. And to put it frankly, Soobin can’t help feeling ashamed one of his members has to see him like this not just once, but a second time in the span of only a month.

A soothing touch of a hand on his shoulder forces him out of his state of self-pity. Beomgyu has climbed onto his bed and is now sitting beside him. Here, they sit for just a minute or two. It’s silent. But Soobin likes the silence, even if sometimes it can be disconcerting. He likes the silence most of the time, is accustomed to its presence, especially when it’s shared with this boy on his side.

"Just a bad dream. 'Twas just a bad dream," Beomgyu comforts him, a hand rubbing up and down Soobin's back, through his shirt. 

Soobin’s sobs have subsided, the worst of it seeming to have already been released from his system. He lets his body, his chest feeling almost too heavy to bear, lead him back flat down onto his sheets. 

Almost instinctively, Beomgyu lies down on his side beside him. Soobin scoots to the left a bit to make sure Beomgyu has enough space to share the pillow and blanket with him.

It’s quiet, and Soobin treasures it. This space, this time of gradual relief. Beomgyu shifts slightly, just so he can swing his right arm across Soobin’s chest, his dainty fingers splayed warmly where Soobin’s heart cries.

"Hyung…. Soobinnie.." Beomgyu whispers, like he's about to spill a secret very close to his heart. Soobin slowly turns his head. He meet Beomgyu’s eyes, in which he sees traces of exhaustion. And worry. Soobin realizes, _Beomgyu likes to worry_.

"I love you, Soobin-hyung. I’m always just here.”

Soobin listens, his beating heart pounding in his ears, a vessel that won’t stop reaching for something. Perhaps, someone.

"I’m not going anywhere, and you can always ask me to hold you. It's all right. Okay?"

It's then and there that Soobin realizes Beomgyu may not have always had the doors to his heart open, but maybe - just maybe - he'll let Soobin in.

It’s quiet, and Soobin treasures him. He loves him, and he lets Beomgyu inch closer, hesitantly. He allows his friend to kiss him on the corner of his slightly parted lips. 

It's a privilege, keeping this boy whom he loves this close. And, Soobin thinks, maybe oblivion isn't so scary if Beomgyu’s by his side. Just like this, they’re safe - the two of them a pair of stars in the inescapable cloak of the night. 

Surely, the night will end and the day will come. And maybe Beomgyu will be back in his bed in the morning, Soobin fears as his eyelids unstoppably flutter shut. But just as the anxiety snakes its way into his consciousness again, Beomgyu lays a peck on him one more time.

“I’ll be here, hyung.” Has Choi Beomgyu always been this good at reading minds?

Soobin wants to smile, or maybe laugh, but he’s tired. So he submits himself to the tender call of sleep. 

The last thing he thinks of is Beomgyu’s hand on his chest.

  
A reminder that his heart’s beating. He’s alive. And - _the light, rhythmical tap of Beomgyu’s fingers_ \- he is so dearly loved.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you liked this!! please do leave kudos or a comment if you did! :) 
> 
> you can reach me on twitter over at @mirointhemirror!


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